[ELECTRON] PHP - question. . . webcam script...again(ish)

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Fri, 2010-04-23 at 12:51 +0100, Clive Mitchell wrote:
> many of the car to USB adapters use a fairly efficient switching
> regulator chip, but if the Arduino can support a low operating voltage
> it might be possible to run both the phone and Arduino from a single
> large lithium cell or NiMh battery pack.

The regulator isn't particularly geared up for low drop-out but you can
run them off 7.2V from old radio battery packs.

> How did you find the whole interfacing of the phone to the Arduino?  I
> bet it took a while to get it all sorted out.  Does your software edit
> out morse sweary words?  :)

I'm guessing it's hooked up over a serial interface, and then it's just
a case of throwing the right AT commands at the phone to make it send an
SMS, or listening for the right response coming back saying it's
received an SMS.  Yes, handling text messages from your embedded board
is really only about as complicated as those funny setup strings that
you barely remember from when you had a dial-up modem ;-)

> It's worth mentioning that lead acid batteries are really intolerant
> of being over discharged  If they are discharged too low they may
> suffer from plate sulphation which limits their future ability to
> supply current and take a charge.

... which is where leisure batteries come in.  Yes, they're more
expensive, but they last well in deep discharge cycles.  Don't use them
for starting the car though, otherwise you'll toast them just as quickly
as deep-discharging a normal car battery will toast that.  Go on, ask me
how I found that out...

Gordon MM0YEQ